May 1, 2011

UPDATE, 10:34 CT: CNN is showing crowds of people around the White House, chanting and celebrating.

UPDATE, 10:35 CT: Obama speaks, describing what happened on September 11, 2001. "The American people came together... We reaffirmed our ties to each other.... We were united as one American family."

UPDATE, 10:38 CT: Last August, there was a new lead about Bin Laden's whereabouts. Last week, there was enough information to launch an operation, Obama says. No Americans were harmed. A "firefight" took place, and we "took possession" of Bin Laden's body.

Obama reminds us that we "are not at war with Islam." He says Bin Laden was not a Muslim, but a terrorist murderer.

UPDATE, 10:41 CT: "Justice has been done." "Let us think back to the unity that prevailed on 9/11." "Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our minds to... not just because of our power but because of who we are, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." A fine speech.

For your amusement and future reference, here's what Bush has said about bin Laden at various points in time, depending on how he was trying to spin things:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." ~ G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive,'" ~ G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI

"...Secondly, he is not escaping us. This is a guy, who, three months ago, was in control of a county [sic]. Now he's maybe in control of a cave. He's on the run. Listen, a while ago I said to the American people, our objective is more than bin Laden. But one of the things for certain is we're going to get him running and keep him running, and bring him to justice. And that's what's happening. He's on the run, if he's running at all. So we don't know whether he's in cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open -- we just don't know...." ~ Bush, in remarks in a Press Availability with the Press Travel Pool, The Prairie Chapel Ranch, Crawford TX, 12/28/01, as reported on official White House site

hey shiloh - did Bush ever get a scenario when all he had to do was approve of a drone strike on OBL and refused to do so? Probably he had already given a standing order to do so without getting his confirm. WHat priority did Obama put on OBL anyways? Did he put boots on the ground in Pakistan to root him out? Nope.

I've been convinced that Osama has been dead for years, probably a good 12 months previous to the last time we got a supposed voice recording of him.

Now, I figure that it's probably been long enough that he won't be elevated to a martyr and a symbol, which I figure is why Bush never announced that we got him or at least that he died in his sleep of kidney failure.

Five years ago, before Al Qaeda had been gutted and discredited in Iraq, yes, it would have been a big deal.

Now, I don't think as much. If the trolls think there'll be a bounce from this, my guess is it will be the dead cat variety. Zawahiri had been speaking for the group, when it spoke at all, and bin Laden had been out of the picture. For all we know, he may have been helpless as Jim Bowie supposedly was at the Alamo, given he had kidney failure and other ailments.

"Osama bin Laden was killed on Barack Hussein Obama's watch, not when ..."

No details? When and where? I'm interested and if you have the info, Shiloh, I want the link.

Not that this will change the fact that Bush was right, absolutely right, to present Osama as unimportant. It made him unimportant and stole his power and potential power as a symbol.

I understand that in a world where nothing is related to anything else and it seems a good thing that Obama makes his decisions case-to-case, that Osama existed in abject isolation as a cause and nothing anyone says will change the opinion of some that Bush should have been railing against him with firey rhetoric, raising him up as the mother of all evil and the most important person in the whole wide world.

Hey, Obama does it all the time, every time he tries to be clever and elevates Rush, or Beck, or Palin, or Trump.

No doubt he'd have done so with Osama and proved that he was a powerful foe indeed.

One of the officials said that American forces, acting on intelligence, launched a “targeted assault” that killed Mr. Bin Laden, whose ability to elude capture for so long deeply frustrated the Bush administration.

It "deeply frustrated" the Bush administration. But not, apparently, the Obama administration, who simply got done the job that the Bush people could not.

shiloh - you failed to show a causal chain of OBL not being killed under the Bush/Cheney watch to some irrelevant public statements. You do realize that behind the scenes other things happen right? How many Al Queada goons did Bush kill? Lost count...

It "deeply frustrated" the Bush administration. But not, apparently, the Obama administration, who simply got done the job that the Bush people could not.

No, Pakistan was covering for OBL all these years. But since they are under pressure to stop the US drone attacks, they finally relented and gave up his position. But of course Obama gets the credit for doing.... what exactly? Oh yeah, just being around... Playing golf.

"Forget about the politics for a moment? Sure if you're an idiot Republican who thinks Obama is going to give Bush any credit for this."

The only credit here is to the Armed Forces and intelligence types. Past that I don't give a shit who takes it politically because it is fleeting - it ain't gonna help Obama for more than a day or so and Bush is secure enough to not give shit.

"Did the White House have 7 days to prepare for this news announcement?"

The news folks were saying that the Hill didn't know about this before the announcement that BHO would be speaking (hence no leaks for a week). So, I'd guess that the WH is calling all the prima donas on the Hill before speaking to the nation.

my side (libs) might be insufferable for a while, but if the economy continues to sputter out, no one will care. It's like the Reaganites who boast about how Reagan singlehandedly stopped the USSR; people knew better than that.

The best thing to do is to see what happens during the week. It will amplify the "bush took his eye off the ball" but O balanced that with our involvement in Libya (plus all O did was continue what W did,he was given a free pass from criticism from a sycophantic press wanting the first black president to be a savior.)

He is also still an arrogant %%%% and if the fiscal situation does not improve it will be no better than last week. But in a sense I would love for O to get a 2nd term. He should be held completely responsible for the 50% rise in the deficit and the results.

Wait! This is huge, Mick. You mean the birthers haven't given up? With every new fact, the conspiracy just gets deeper, huh?

Also, non-birther related, I doubt that Obama cares about Trump here. He wants this to dominate the week's news cycle. This is the opposite of releasing news on Friday. However, if Obama even thought about Trump here, sad. Trump is not going to be a factor in the Republican nomination battle.

Shiloh is a troll, and I hardly feel his remarks worthy of mention, but if I failed to recognize it then, I have since come to believe that Bush did the right thing by minimizing bin Laden's importance.

No, Pakistan was covering for OBL all these years. But since they are under pressure to stop the US drone attacks, they finally relented and gave up his position.

...then this is answered...

But of course Obama gets the credit for doing.... what exactly?

If there is one concrete difference in President Obama's Afghanistan tactics, it's an increase in drone attacks, especially inside Afghanistan. If the drone attacks truly led the Pakistanis to give up Bin Laden, then I think President Obama actually deserves some credit here.

I don't know if the premise is true or not. I think President Obama will get the credit simply because that's generally the way it works: the guy on watch at the time of the event gets the credit (or the blame). Partisans may try to shift the timeframe to their advantage; but the general public will credit this to President Obama.

You aren't a stupid person, Shiloh. I know you're not. But you would rather Bush had puffed Osama up as a symbol. What you feel is so cutting, so wonderful, so harsh that it must be repeated proves nothing at all about the effort Bush directed toward the search for Osama and you know it. Because you're not stupid.

What's changed? Tomorrow, you'll still pay out the ass for gasoline. The economy is a wreck. If anything, the world is more dangerous given the perception by terrorist thug fuck sticks that a reprisal is in order.

This is great and all. Way to go. Woo hoo. Good job. But it's a ribbon-cutting ceremony and nothing more.

Obama is coming off as egotistical and cold. He mentions himself way too much. And he signs letters to the families of dead servicemen-- oh, the strain on his hand!

All this harking back to 9/11 and "unity" is really annoying. It represents America as weak and pathetic. He should have been strongly issuing a warning to other would-be terrorists that this is what will happen to them too. Hang bin-Laden's head on the rostra like they did in the old days.

" Shiloh is a troll, and I hardly feel his remarks worthy of mention, but if I failed to recognize it then, I have since come to believe that Bush did the right thing by minimizing bin Laden's importance."

Bush made a lot of mistakes in the prosecution of the "War on Terror". His early understanding that killing OBL wasn't the most important goal was not one of those mistakes.

Claiming that Bush didn't consider Osama important is retarded and you know it. The fact of the matter is that he had to say that so as to not make Bin Laden into some sort of icon constantly thumbing his nose at the mighty US (think Che).

If you treat him as some sort of replaceable cog the fact that he's out there is not a propaganda tool for the enemy. On the other hand if you make him into the primary focus of the war then every moment he lives is PR victory.

The best analogy I can use is a prison warden. It is common practice in prison to not recognize any gang lest you give them a form of legitimacy. That doesn't mean they don't exist and that prison officials are not concerned, it just means that they are trying to prevent them from growing in popularity.

"I'd also like to speak directly to those who would like to emulate bin Laden, who have designs to attack this country. The lesson you should learn today is this: It doesn't matter how long it takes, or how far you run. We will hunt you. We will find you. And we will kill you."

The only thing I'm sorry about is that it was probably a clean death in a gunfight. I would've been more glad to see the bastard stuck in a fire-laden skyscraper and forced to ride it down when it collapsed.

"I'm thrilled that he's dead and that Obama said we are one nation "under God". All of a sudden we can say that again without offending anyone?"

It's just politics. I'm sick to fucking death of politics. I never listen to politicians blather. The only thing I needed to hear was that Osama is room-fucking-temperature. Thanks to the military who carried it out and the intelligence who made it possible. Everybody else can fuck off.